[Sca-cooks] to the tune of the Hallelujah Chorus:
Laura C. Minnick
lcm at jeffnet.org
Mon Mar 24 19:15:17 PDT 2008
At 07:01 PM 3/24/2008, you wrote:
>Am I wrong in my understanding that, at least in Tudor England, many
>birds and animals that *ate* fish were also considered
>*fish* during Lent and on fish days? I read it someplace, and
>perhaps the source was incorrect <shrug>.
Not by any rules that I know of! In fact, Queen Elizabeth was very
protective of the fishing industries, and opposed attempts to cut the
number of fasting days. It's all about the pocketbook.
You may be thinking of the elusive 'barnacle goose' and the beaver.
The barnacle goose shows up in some of the period bestiaries, as an
alleged bird that grows on trees like fruit- making it a plant and
therefore ok. Nothing was ever pronounced from Rome on the matter
though. There was also some contention that the beaver- more
particularly his tail- was a fish. Again, no word from Rome. Either
of both of these might have been accepted out in the boonies, but
generally they were laughed at, and seen as a rather silly excuse to
break the fast.
'Lainie
___________________________________________________________________________________
"It is our choices Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than
our abilities." -Albus Dumbledore
~~~Follow my Queenly perambulations at: http://slugcrossings.blogspot.com/
More information about the Sca-cooks
mailing list